The Effects of Offshoring on the Gender Hours Gap in the US, Macroeconomic Dynamics, 2025.
This paper examines the role of offshoring in the flattening of the ratio of female to male hours worked in the United States since the early 1990s. The observed flattening coincides with a decline in the share of occupations with high offshoring potential in women’s hours worked and an increase in service offshoring. I propose a two-gender, two-sector model with a continuum of occupations. Given the higher female intensity in the service sector, the gender hours ratio declines as service offshoring increases. Quantitatively, the service offshoring plays an important role in explaining the plateau in the gender hours ratio since the 1990s.
Chaebols and Firm Dynamics in Korea (joint with Philippe Aghion and Sergei Guriev), Economic Policy, 2021.
Online Appendix, Working paper versions(EBRD Working paper, CEPR Discussion paper), VoxEU column
We study firm dynamics in Korea before and after the 1997-98 Asian crisis and pro-competitive reforms that reduced the dominance of chaebols. We find that in industries that were dominated by chaebols before the crisis, labour productivity and TFP of non-chaebol firms increased markedly after the reforms (relative to other industries). Furthermore, entry of non-chaebol firms increased significantly in all industries after the reform. After the crisis, the non-chaebol firms also dramatically increased their patenting activity. Finally, markups of chaebol firms declined substantially, especially with industries dominated by chaebols before the crisis. These results suggest that the crisis had the virtue of helping Korea move from catching-up growth based on investment in existing technologies to innovation-based growth.
Cheapflation and Inflation Inequality after the Pandemic (joint with Seunghyun Wi), BOK Issue Note 2024-32, Bank of Korea, 2024.
Recreational Computing and Labor Supply (joing with Hamin Lee), BOK Issue Note 2024-16, Bank of Korea, 2024.
Analysis on the Rise in Elderly Employment Rate (joint with Jongha Lee), Monthly Bulletin, Bank of Korea, 2022.
The Impacts of Low-Cost Carrier Entry on Air Travel to Jeju (joint with Beomsoo Kim, Seongjin Jin, and Youngwoong Hwang), Journal of Transport Research, 2015.
Why are Hours Worked in Korea Long?
Koreans work longer hours than Americans although they face higher labor tax rates and lower family care related subsidies. I propose a two-period OLG model incorporating education costs and pension benefits to explain this observation. In Korea, education costs are high due to prevalence of private after-school lessons and limited student loans for college education, restricting households’ budgets and driving the prime-aged to work longer. The old receive lower pension benefits, staying longer in the labor market. The calibrated model is successful in generating longer hours worked of the prime-aged and the old in Korea.